Counting Tritiated Water at High Humidities in the Geiger Region

A METHOD for the direct counting of tritiated water in the Geiger region at high humidities would be most useful. Heretofore, tritiated water has been counted in the Geiger region at pressures less than 2 mm. 1 ; or the water has been allowed to react with zinc 2 , and the resulting hydrogen counted...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1955-12, Vol.176 (4496), p.1262-1264
Main Author: BUTLER, EDWARD B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:A METHOD for the direct counting of tritiated water in the Geiger region at high humidities would be most useful. Heretofore, tritiated water has been counted in the Geiger region at pressures less than 2 mm. 1 ; or the water has been allowed to react with zinc 2 , and the resulting hydrogen counted in a Geiger–Müller tube; or the water has been allowed to react with calcium carbide 3 or aluminium carbide 4 to produce acetylene, which could then be counted. Recently, Nilsson and Aniansson 5 developed a flow counter which would operate in the proportional region with high-humidity gas. They attributed their success to the use of gases such as ethane, propane or n -butane, which have ionization potentials lower than that of water vapour. I have succeeded in counting in the Geiger region with a high-humidity gas, a 1.3 per cent iso obutane-in-helium mixture (Nuclear Chicago Q -gas) being used as the flow gas.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/1761262b0